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Thursday, May 14, 2015

Women-Controlled Research Gets Recognition!

By Francie Hornstein, former co-director of the L.A. Feminist Women's Health Center (FWHC)

I'm writing to encourage you to contribute what you can to Kathy Hodge's travel to the upcoming Society for Menstrual Cycle Research Conference. I attended this conference in the 1970's to present research conducted by the FWHC. Our research was a grassroots effort to document our own menstrual cycles, in detail. While we were a bit nervous to be meeting with this group of "real" research scientists, our research was met with respect, enthusiasm and honest curiosity.

The 1970's marked the beginning of women in science investigating topics of concern to other women. Since then, research conducted by women in science has proliferated. Kathy's attendance at the conference is important for two reasons: 1) She can represent the history of work done by the feminist health movement and the FWHC in particular and 2) She can hear about current research related to women's health done by women in research and academia. These connections are invaluable in determining the direction of future research that benefits women's health.